Study Status: Recruiting
Recruit Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Predict to Prevent Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Brief Summary:
The project focuses on C9orf72, the most frequent genetic form of frontotemporal dementias (FTD, or frontotemporal lobar degeneration, FTLD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). FTD is the second commonest cause of degenerative dementia in presenium after Alzheimer's disease. Behavioural and cognitive impairments progressively lead to dementia. ALS produces progressive muscle weakness leading to the death in 2 to 4 years. Since 2006, major discoveries have linked FTLD and ALS:
Two major pathological subtypes are now defined in FTD, FTD-TDP and FTD-TAU. C9orf72 mutations (associated to FTD-TDP) are the most frequent genetic causes of FTD (15%), FTD-ALS (65%) and ALS (40%).
FTD is difficult at an early stage; and no clinical, biological or imaging features can predict the underlying pathology in living patients. Therapeutic perspectives emerged against tau aggregation, progranulin deficit and C9orf72 expansion (antisense). Presymptomatic carriers of genetic FTD would benefit, before onset of symptoms, from these therapeutic that would delay or prevent the disease. At this step, it becomes crucial to develop markers to know how many years before symptoms, does the pathological progress begin, to treat the patients at the most early stage of the disease. Markers are also needed to predict the pathology (FTD-TDP/FTD-tau) in patients that will be eligible for trials targeting specific pathological lesion.